Today's Headlines: Trump's Meet the Press interview derailed when Kristen Welker told him to his face that he lost in 2020, but not before he confirmed on the record that he wants January 6th defendants who assaulted police officers compensated, called them victims of "dirty cops," denied ever promising no new wars, and compared Iran favorably to Vietnam. Coincidentally, a Vietnam veteran filed a lawsuit over the UFC fight night at the White House, arguing it wasn't authorized by Congress and benefits Trump directly since he bought UFC parent company stock while promoting the event, with the Lincoln Memorial scheduled to host fighter weigh-ins, which is a sentence that exists. Trump will also be at the Knicks game inconveniencing everyone with TSA screening and canceled watch parties. On the war beat, Iran fired missiles at Israel for the first time since the April ceasefire, Israel bombed Beirut, oil spiked 3.6%, and Trump responded by calling Fox News to criticize Israel and telling Axios he was phoning Netanyahu because "each of them had their fun" — not the standard framework for analyzing a missile exchange. The May jobs report came in better than expected with 172,000 payrolls added, but markets dipped anyway, prompting Trump to post that "stocks should go up not down, that's the way it was for 200 years," which is not how markets work. And finally, a former Social Security Administration executive blew the whistle on a DOGE-backed plan to mark 2.7 million living people — citizens, permanent residents, teenagers, senior citizens — as dead in federal databases to make life impossible for immigrants and funnel them into Social Security offices where they could be arrested, which didn't go through, though last year officials did successfully file 6,000 people into the Death Master File, some of whom had to physically show up to prove they were alive.
Resources/Articles mentioned:
NBC News: Read the transcript: President Donald Trump interviewed by NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ moderator Kristen Welker
NYT: Trump Defends Compensation Fund and Iran War in ‘Meet the Press’ Interview
NYT: Lawsuit Aims to Stop U.F.C. Fights at White House on Trump’s Birthday
AP News: No bags, no watch parties at Madison Square Garden with Trump attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals
NYT: Live Updates: Iran Fires Missiles at Israel for First Time Since April Cease-Fire
NYT: Israel Bombs Beirut Outskirts as Fighting With Hezbollah Escalates
Axios: Trump tells Axios he will ask Netanyahu not to strike back at Iran
Bloomberg: Oil Jumps As Israel retaliates Against Iran After Missile Attacks
CNBC: Jobs report May 2026
Fortune: Trump stunned as stocks fall on great jobs report. Barclays explains why ‘we are entering the warning zone'
WaPo: Whistleblower claims DOGE planned to mark 2.7 million people dead
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